Tim Robbins

Actor / Filmmaker

Born: 16 October 1958

Birthplace: West Covina, California

Best known as: Oscar-winning star of Mystic River and Bull Durham

Tim Robbins won an Oscar as best supporting actor for his role in the 2003 Clint Eastwood drama Mystic River. Robbins grew up in Greenwich Village in New York, where he got involved with the theater at the age of 12. After high school he moved to Los Angeles and studied drama and acting, co-founding a theater group called The Actors' Gang. He began working in television and movies in the early '80s and had roles in The Sure Thing (1985, starring John Cusack) and Top Gun (1986, starring Tom Cruise) before making it big as the goofy pitcher Nuke LaLoosh in the jovial baseball flick Bull Durham (1988). Dramatic roles in Jacob's Ladder (1990) and The Player (1992) showed his skill as an actor, and his mock-documentary Bob Roberts (1992) showed he was no slouch as a writer and director. He has made two other films as writer/director, Dead Man Walking (1995, starring Sean Penn) and Cradle Will Rock (1999), and several films in lead and supporting roles, including The Shawshank Redemption (1994, with Morgan Freeman), Arlington Road (1999), High Fidelity (2000) and the Steven Spielberg version of War of the Worlds (2005, starring Tom Cruise).

Extra credit: Robbins announced in 2009 that he had split with his longtime companion, actress Susan Sarandon. The two never married but were together for 21 years, having met on the set of Bull Durham in 1988. They had two sons: Jack (b. 1989) and Miles (b. 1992)... Robbins is famously outspoken on political issues and was criticized by fellow liberal celebrities in 2000 for voting for Ralph Nader instead of Al Gore.